An autonomous vehicle is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating with little or no user input. An autonomous vehicle perceives its environment using sensing devices such as radar, lidar, image sensors, etc. The autonomous vehicle system further uses information from global positioning systems (GPS) technology, navigation systems, other vehicles, infrastructure, and/or drive-by-wire systems to navigate the vehicle.
Application based transportation services are becoming increasingly popular. Conventional application based transportation services connect a user with a local driver who is available to take the user from point A to point B. The driver uses their own personal vehicle to transport the user. In some instances, it would be desirable to use autonomous vehicles instead of driver based vehicles for the transportation. In such instances, however, where a driver is not present in the vehicle, it would be difficult for the transportation service to monitor the cleanliness of the autonomous vehicle. Unclean vehicles are typically undesirable to a user.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide methods and systems for monitoring and promoting cleanliness in an autonomous vehicle or any other type of vehicle. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.